When Blessings Come Incognito

I was visiting recently with a friend who asked why she was faced with so many challenges, and if perhaps God had abandoned her. It is true she has a lot of difficulties. She has gone though a nasty divorce, has struggles with her children and deals daily with severe physical limitations.

However, I have seen God's hand so often in the small details of my life, I know God will never abandon us during our biggest trials. And so I wondered how often our blessings might come incognito. They are there, we just aren't seeing them.

In thinking about this, the two following stories came to my mind:

When Lehi and his family (from the Book of Mormon) were told to leave Jerusalem in search of a promised land or be destroyed, they all left behind their riches and their comforts of home and headed off into the desert--where they lived for eight years.

Truthfully, camping one night for me is torture. Living for eight years wandering in the desert, sleeping in tents, being deprived of hot running water and eating raw meat (1 Ne 17:2) would be a HUGE trial! I totally get why Laman and Lemuel murmured!

Yet Nephi writes, "So great were the blessings of the Lord upon us . . . " In the midst of his affliction, he found the blessings. They may have been hidden (after all his brothers never found them) but they were there. They were strengthened, fed and guided by the Lord all through their journey. Their trials were numerous, as Lehi often referred to this time as the "wilderness of my affliction" but still, the Lord was there.

Never at any time were they abandoned, although there were times when some of them abandoned God.

Another story I have always gotten a chuckle from is the story of Elijah. He calls down a famine upon the people and then is told by the Lord to hide himself by a brook where he could obtain water and the Lord would provide the rest of his food.

So, then how did the prophet of the Lord eat? Did he eat off the "fat of the land" or in the style to which he was accustomed? No, he ate bread and meat delivered by the ravens morning and night. So I looked up what ravens would be most likely to bring and this is what I found.

"Most ravens eat the dead bodies of other animals. Ravens generally eat some fruit, berries and grains when they are available. They will eat any small animals, small birds and small reptiles that they can find. Ravens even eat maggots and animal poo. Ravens eat anything that is easy to catch!"

I am not sure if this is the type of food Elijah received or if the birds brought him something a bit more palatable, but the idea of living alone in the desert, eating road kill, once again does not sound like a blessing to me.

Yet, just like Nephi, Elijah was guided, nourished and protected until the Lord saw fit to send him elsewhere.

I wonder if perhaps we have the wrong idea about life. I know there are times when I think living the commandments entitles me immediately to the blessings I desire--a roof over my head, food to eat, health, and a happy family life. Yet, that is so often not the case for many righteous people. And when our worlds seem to fall apart, our health or families fail us, we cry out wondering why this has happened to us, and why God does not bless us with those things we deserve.

Raw meat and raven deliveries might not at first seem like great blessings for Nephi and Elijah as well, but they both were. Elijah would have starved with out the food the ravens brought and Nephi and his family were probably being protected by unsavory travelers who might have seen the smoke from the fire they used to cook their meat.

And so I have come to believe that during our darkest days, God will always nourish, strengthen and guide. We may just have to look a little harder to notice it.

And that thought brings great . . . joy to my journey.

Leaving On A Jet Plane . . . and a little touch of randomness

Tomorrow morning I am boarding a plane to Utah! I will be met by my daughter at the airport, who will chauffeur me to my parent's house. And the following morning I will be joined by my four sisters at Women's Conference.

Now can anything be more fun than that?!

I am so very much looking forward to it. Although I would be just a little more excited if I hadn't checked the weather report.

SNOW.

Just a little added adventure, coutesy of Mother Nature, I suppose.

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About yesterday's post . . . I am feeling a little guilty about the support people have given over being left alone during labor just as the baby was making an appearance because . . . my mother has a much more dramatic story.

Making a long story short . . . When she was expecting my youngest brother we lived in Costa Rica. This was also a time when fathers didn't participate much in the birth of their children. So when it was time to deliver, my dad took my mother to the hospital, was told it would be several hours and to go home and they would call him when it got closer. So he did.

Unfortunately, they also didn't have a labor room available so they put my mother in a storage closet, on a table with a pillow and then left her there. About an hour later, a nurse did check on her, but that was the last time she saw anyone for FIVE hours!! No one monitored her process, no one made sure the baby was okay, no one administered medication or helped her with contractions.

She was left there all alone.

When she got close to being ready to deliver, still no one had come and so she started yelling, "Help!! Help!!" as loudly as she could. Unfortunately she couldn't remember the word for "help" in Spanish and so just hoped her English would be understood. Finally, a nurse came, checked her and then immediately called the doctor. Luckily my father had grown concerned and gone to the hospital even though no one called him. While walking in, he saw the doctor run past. Just a few minutes later, my mother delivered a very cute 9 lb baby boy.

Pretty dramatic. But then my Mom is a farm girl, and very tough! :-)
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Lastly. I am LOVING studying the book of Ether right now for seminary. Today we were talking about how the Brother of Jared was so faithful about praying but when he got to the coast he stopped praying for four years. I asked the kids how that could happen to someone who was so righteous.

One boy blurted out, "It was because he was enjoying his cottage on the beach!" Isn't that the truth. How often do we get content in where we are and so we stop moving forward, even though our "promised land" hasn't been reached.

Perhaps that is another good reason for me to go to Women's Conference . . . I have grown a little too comfortable in my "cottage" and need to be nudged/kicked out. :-)

So here is to progress!! May it always bring . . . joy to our journey.

Random Thoughts of a More Serious Nature

Okay, so that title probably isn't going to create much interest for the casual blog surfer, but this post is one that has great meaning to me.

I have had a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head these past few weeks. I kept waiting for the wind to die down so I could concentrate more clearly on one or two of them. I was sure something profound was there amidst all the commotion, but I think life has kept me too busy to spend much time pondering, which I am sorry to say.

So rather than dedicate an entire post to just one topic, I thought I would write a little about a few.

Here goes.

1. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend Time Out For Women here in Phoenix. I loved the speakers, their thoughts and messages, although it always takes me a little while to get over the feeling that I just paid a lot of money to hear a Deseret Book sales pitch. Still, two things stand out. First is a book by Emily Freeman called “The Promise of Enough”. She took a very simple story, the feeding of the five thousand, and turned it into a sweet book on abundance. I love learning what other people get from the scriptures. It gives me a greater desire to search them more closely to find the lessons the Lord has for me.

The second was Kris Belcher. She is a woman who has lived a life of extreme challenges and yet has found humor in her situation and has turned her trials into an opportunity to serve others. After hearing her speak about going blind and having cancer, I decided I could never justifiably complain about my life ever again.

But do you want to know my favorite part of the day? Lunch. And not because of the food. Knowing we would be competing with 2,000 other women for the few restaurants open on a Saturday downtown, we planned a picnic instead. There were five of us and each brought a portion of the meal. Together it was quite a feast. While sitting there on the ground, surrounded by friends and delicious morsels, I thought how grateful I am I don’t have to go through this life alone. I am sure that anything we do where everyone contributes is vastly better, and more enjoyable, than anything we could ever do on our own.

2. Our ward primary program was yesterday and it was beautiful. I was so touched by the singing of the children’s choir and their simple teaching of pure doctrine. I have to say my favorite part, however, was when a small group of children stood at the podium and sang. Not only did the words of the song stir my heart, but I was overcome by their sweet, little faces. I thought how wonderfully innocent they are right now, and I wanted to gather them all up and hug them. I think there can’t be anything in the world more precious than a sweet, innocent child.

3. In seminary the other day we were discussing tools to help us avoid deception. When the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob was confronted by the anti-Christ, Sherem, he used the scriptures, the words of the prophets and his own promptings from the Holy Ghost to avoid being deceived. We then talked about the evil doctrines of our day, the disintegration of the family being one of them. I asked the students to combat that evil with a teaching from the prophets and a scripture. One young man found the following scripture in Alma 43:47 in the Book of Mormon. I have heard this scripture many times before, but reading it that day, and in light of the challenges we face in preserving the family, our religious freedoms and our rights, it struck me in a way it never has before. It reads:

“And again the Lord has said that: Ye shall defend your families even unto bloodshed. Therefore for this cause were the Nephites contending with the Lamanites, to defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights and their religion.”

Yes, there are some things worth dying for.

So there you have some of my random thoughts, thoughts that warm my heart, give me a greater appreciation for God, friends and family and bring . . . joy to my journey.

If you have a child who will be in seminary . . .

Seminary starts next week for us and that means no more sleeping in! We are on the early morning program and start at 5:50 a.m. (a full five minutes later than last year!). But whether you have early morning or released time, a very important part of seminary is . . .

scripture mastery!



Each year seminary students are required to "master" twenty five scriptures from the book of scripture they are studying that year. This year we are studying the Book of Mormon.



If you or your child want some extra help in learning these scriptures, here are a couple websites with good information.



The best is the church's own seminary and institute website at http://www.ldsces.org/. If you go to there, click on "seminary" on the left side of the page. (You do not need a password to enter that part of the site) That will take you into the seminary website and you can choose where you want to go from there.



Or you can go directly to the Book of Mormon Resources by clicking here. This will give you the list of scriptures, the seminary video songs, book marks, time lines and pictures as well as other resources.



You can also go directly to the scripture mastery page by clicking here. On this page, you will find games that can help you learn about the scriptures and help in memorizing them. You can even do a timed virtual scripture chase! (The instructions aren't very clear, but it is easy to figure out if you play around with it for a few minutes.)



And for a fun, non-official church site with the scriptures put to music go here. In the middle of this page you will see the different Book of Mormon references for the scripture mastery scriptures listed. Click on one of the scriptures for a song to help you memorize the verses. These songs are performed by the group "Son's of Ammon" and are free. Some are a little corny, but my class loved the ones we learned from the New Testament last year, so I anticipate my new class will enjoy these as well. And besides, who doesn't learn better when it they sing a song?!



Have Fun!! And I hope you all have a great year!!

The Healing Power of the Atonement

I posted the song used in this video a couple months ago, but liked this version much better so I am posting it again. It really is worth your time to watch it.

And for two beautiful blog entries dealing with trials and difficulties in a positive way please go to Scripture Mom and Momza's House. I loved both of these.